The Homeschool at Mingo's Corner - Homeschool Blogger

Galloping - Africa

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 23:15:00 -0500

Africa was full of surprising discoveries for us! We chose not to do all of the countries in GtG, again because of the availability, or lack thereof, in our library's collection.

But we did find some great resources!

Literature:

Verna Aardema is *the* children's author for Africa. Her stories, based upon African folktales from around the central region of the continent, are full of wonderful sound effects and clever characters. Most are "porquio" tales - stories that explain why things are as they are. A good bibliography of her works can be found here.

Hands down, our favorite Aardema book was Travelling to Tondo. We also read and enjoyed How the Ostrich Got its Long Neck, The Lonely Lioness and the Ostrich Chicks, and Anansi Does the Impossible.

From South Africa, we enjoyed a couple of interesting tales:

Jubela - Kessler. The story of an orphaned baby rhinoceros.
My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me - Maya Angelou. This is a delightful introduction to the Ndebele people of So. Africa. We were inspired to make Ndebele style art from the vibrant pictures in this book.
Safari Journal: the Adventures in Africa of Cary Monroe - Hudson Talbott (Kenya). Twelve-year-old Casey is unhappy about being sent on a trip to Kenya with his wacky Aunt Elaine, until he encounters fascinating customs, endangered animals, and wild adventures.
Master Man - Aaron Shephard (Nigeria). A boastful strong man learns a lesson harder than his muscles when he encounters one of Nigeria's superheroes in this Hausa tale which explains the origin of thunder. A "comic book" style that was a nice
break from our usual literature format.
Bitter Bananas - Isaac Olalaye (Nigeria). When baboons begin stealing the sweet palm sap that Yusuf sells at the market near his Nigerian village, what is he to do?
My Great Grandmother's Gourd - Kessler. Residents of a Sudanese village rejoice when a traditional water storage method is replaced by modern technology, but Fatima's grandmother knows there is no substitute for the reliability of the baobab tree.

In Egypt, we limited our resources somewhat by avoiding most of the
mummy/tomb/pyramid books. We'll be studying Ancient Egypt this fall and wanted to save that good stuff for that time period. This really made finding literature for Egypt difficult, but a few things did surface.

Zekmet the Stone Carver - by Mary Stolz. Chosen to design a magnificent monument for a vain and demanding Pharoah, an Egyptian stone carver conceives of and begins work on the Sphinx which still stands in the Egyptian desert today. Not the "true" story of the Sphinx, but one person's imaginative tale of how it may have been. (We'd read this tale before, so it
made the "cut" for Egypt this go around.)
The Egyptian Polar Bear - JoAnn Adinolfi. A lonely polar bear is swept away on an iceberg and winds up in Egypt where he becomes the royal playmate of Rahotep the boy king. The cover page indicates that one of the Egyptian royal tombs included plans for a burial chamber for a polar bear! This is the "story that had to be told" based on that discovery.

Science:

The Magic Schoolbus All Dried Up video reviews how animals survive in the harsh desert. We also did the activity connected with the story on the MSB Website.

Art and Extras

Dover has several booklets of animal stickers, including some from Africa. We created a savannah "scene" using construction paper and these stickers to illustrate the variety of animals found there.

Galloping - South America

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 23:08:00 -0500

After the bounty of potential options for studying North America, South America seems to be a stretch for many people. There are some great suggestions in the text, but so much depends on what is available from your library.

We have heavily depended on a series of books in our library called Welcome to My Country." My daughter finally made it clear that these were her least favorite part of *all* of our studies, including math! Of course, they are the closest thing to a textbook
that she has encountered thus far.

Admittedly, however, without the addition of stories and other types of literature, these Welcome to books can be a bit repetitive and seem dry. Unfortunately, these were about all that our library had, or could get in for us, about the South American countries.

So, we spent the majority of our time studying Brazil and the rainforest. It was actually quite relaxing and we enjoyed our in-depth look at the astounding biome of the rainforest.

Here are some of the things we did outside of the GTG recommended resources:

Readers (for those just beginning to read independently):

South America - Allan Fowler. A "Rookie Read-About" book
South America - Mary Fox. A "First Library" book

Literature:

The Magic Tree House: Afternoon on the Amazon - Mary Pope Osborne
The Beginning of the Armadillos - Rudyard Kipling. Kipling is so well-known for his stories set in India, but this is a great one in similar style.
The Great Kapok Tree - Lynne Cherry. The animals living in a rainforest tree convince a man not to chop it down.
Amazon Diary - Hudson Talbott. A terrific fictional adventure story about a young boy's temporary stay with the Yanomami tribe of the Amazon. Begins with a plane crash (both passengers survive) and the eventual rescue of the
passengers, but not before they rescue a member of the tribe!
The Thunder God's Son (from Ecuador) - Ariane Dewey. A nice morality tale about kindness with bright stylized illustrations.

Science:

The Magic Schoolbus Rainforest video. A wonderful review of the "web of life."
We began a tropical terrarium, but have had difficulty finding the right types of plants, in the correct sizes, for our container.

Art and Extras:

Patagonia: Life at the End of the Earth (Argentina) - video. An excellent video about the unexpected harshness of animal life in the region east of the Andes and west of the Atlantic.
Dover has several booklets of animal stickers, including some from the rain forest. We created a rainforest "scene" using construction paper and these stickers to illustrate the variety of animals and habitats found therein.
Be sure to enjoy some really fine chocolate, preferably with at least 55% cocoa content to get the "real" flavor.

Galloping - North America

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 22:26:00 -0500

We found North America to be the most difficult in terms of what to choose to cover! We know our own region so well and it's difficult to decide what needs to be highlighted.

In the end, I decided to focus on geographic and cultural literacy, especially when it came to the United States. This seemed like a logical way to narrow down what we covered.

Canada

General Topics:
Welcome to Canada - Robert Barlas

Festivals of the World: Canada - Robert Barlas

Exploring Canada with the Five Themes of Geography - Nancy Golden

The Inuit of Canada - Danielle Corriveau

Readers (for those just beginning to read independently):

Farm Animals - Gillis

Living on Farms - Fowler

If it Weren't for Farmers - Fowler

Literature:

Wilderness Cat - Natalie Kinsey-Warnock

Science:

The Magic School Bus Goes Cellular and the experiment on yeast found on the MSB website.

Art and Activities:

Make Your Own Inuksuk - Mary Wallace. An Inuksuk is an Inuit stone marker that is a form of ancient signpost and message. These really captured my kindergartener's imagination.

We made pancakes with maple syrup from Canada.

United States

With the United States, there were clear decisions that had to be made regarding what we could feasibly cover regarding our history, culture, and literature. The options seem endless.

In the end, I chose to use this as an opportunity to introduce my daughter to some aspects of our history and culture that would enable her to be more "culturally literate." So, we covered some extreme basics about George Washington, Paul Revere, the Revolutionary War, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, some easy Little House picture books, major landmarks, and the like. It was by no means comprehensive, but I've seen her put some of these bits of knowledge into practice since then, which is gratifying!

General Topics

A is for America - Devin Scillian. Unlike other, more simplistic, alphabet books, this one has many cultural details woven into the illustrations. We spent a lot of time looking through this one and discussing the images.

Literature:

Going to Town and Going West - Laura Ingalls Wilder. Adaptations of the Little House books in picture format.
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
Story of the Lady Slipper
The Tales of Uncle Remus - read by Julius Lester

History:

We the People - Peter Spier. A cartoon rendition of the opening lines of our Constitution, illustrating the enormous meaning of these words.
The One and Only Declaration of Independence - Judith St. George. A factual, yet humorous, account of the physical history of the Declaration. Goodness, it might have gotten *folded*!
The Story of the Liberty Bell - Natalie Miller.
Washington, DC - American History for Children video. A isual tour of the primary monuments of our capitol.

Mexico
Mexico was made more interesting by the addition of lots of fun salsa music! We also explored classical guitar music as well, which was a review of some things we'd covered while studying Spain.

General Topics:

Exploring Mexico with the Five Themes of Geography - Nancy Golden.

Literature:

The Legend of the Poinsettia - Tomie DePaola
The Flame of Peace - Deborah Nourse Lattimore. We really
enjoyed this folktale from the ancient Aztecs. The illustrations were wonderful and we re-read it several times, even checking it out as recently as summer 2009.
Adelita - Tomie DePaola. A Mexican Cinderella story.
Pancho's Pinata - Stefan Czernecki

History:

Hill of Fire - Lewis. An "easy reader" story of the formation of the Paricutin volcano. It became apparent I needed to purchase this book when I found Kate trying to copy it so she could have "one for [her] own."

Art and Activities:

Tissue paper flowers are easy to make and very decorative. They are used in several Latin American countries to decorate for festivals.
Mini Pinatas are perfect for those who want an easy way to recreate these fun party treats. A "no papier mache" version is found here.

Galloping the Globe - Polar Regions

Sun, 2 Aug 2009 22:49:00 -0500

Here are some of the wonderful things that we used in addition to the suggested texts in GtG for the Polar Regions:

General Topics

From the Artic to Antarctica - Rod Theodoru
March of the Penguins DVD - Lives up to the "hype."

Readers (for those just beginning to read independently):

Living in the Arctic
These Birds Can't Fly
It Could Still be a Bird

Literature

The Magic Tree House: Polar Bears Past Bedtime - Mary Pope Osborne
My Season With the Penguins - Interesting, factual account of a study of penguins.
A Penguin Year - a realistic portrayal of a year in the life of a penguin. (Note, parents may wish to "pre-read" this book as there is one page with a tasteful, but visual, drawing of penguins mating. It took me by surprise!)

Science

We read Polar Bear Patrol and Penguin Puzzle which are both Magic School Bus chapter books.
We read The Magic School Bus In the Arctic and did the experiment on insulation found on the MSB website.
The Best Book of Polar Animals - lives up to its name
How to Hide a Polar Bear and Other Mammals - Ruth Heller
Zoobooks magazines - Polar Bears, Penguins, Seals

Art

We really enjoy fuse beads (see Perler Beads). They have a penguin fuse bead form and free patterns online.

Galloping - Europe

Sun, 2 Aug 2009 22:40:00 -0500

We have completed the following countries in our Gallop through Europe! We have chosen to use many of the listed in the text, but our library, while wonderful, is small. However, we have found some wonderful things there that were in addition to the suggested texts in GtG and are listed below:

Sweden

General Topics

Welcome to Sweden - Alexander Vimala
Fiesta! Sweden - Grolier
Usborne Round the World Songbook

Literature

"Thor's Hammer" - Usborne's Stories from Around the World
Boo and Baa - Olaf Landstrom - adorable illustrations and simple text about two sheep and their domestic adventures.
The Queen's Necklace - by Janet Langdon

Activities

We made pepperkakor (gingersnaps) and saffron buns, both traditional Swedish foods.

France

General Topics

Welcome to France
Fiesta! France- by Grolier Educational

Literature

"Puss in Boots" - Usborne's Stories from Around the World
"Bluebeard" - Golden Treasury
Toads and Diamonds - by Huck. Wonderful illustrations of this traditional fairy tale.
Madeline - by Bemelmans.
The Cows are Going to Paris - by Kirby. A silly story, but a neat overview of the highlights of Paris.

Activities

I found a website with Lego instructions for the Eiffel Tower . This worked out really well and my 5 year old daughter could follow the instructions.

The Netherlands

General Topics

Festivals of the World: Holland - Gareth Stevens Publisher
Welcome to Holland - Gareth Stevens Publishing

Literature

"Brave Hendrick" - Usborne's Stories from Around the World
Katje, the Windmill Cat - Gretchen Woelfle. A delightful story of
a cat saving the day when the dike breaks.
Boxes for Katje - Candace Fleming. Based on a true story of an exchange of boxes between young people after WWII.

Biographies

M.C. Escher - we also did a craft on tesselations and played with
foam tesselation lizards.

Italy

General Topics

Fiesta! Italy - Grollier
Welcome to Italy - Gareth Stevens Publishing

Literature

"Buried Treasure" - Usborne's Stories from Around the World
Clown of God - de Paola. A talented juggler grows old and gives
his final gift to the Virgin.
The Wonderful Eggs of Furicchia - Anne Rockwell.
Days of the Blackbird - de Paola

Spain

General Topics

Fiesta! Spain - Grollier
Welcome to Spain - Gareth Stevens Publishing

Activities

We listened to classical guitar by Angel Romero and flamenco music!

Literature

Story of Ferdinand - by Munroe Leaf
"The Contented Priest" - The Lion Storyteller

Science

We read online about cork at http:www.corkqc.com/cqfrst.htm
This was more interesting than one might expect! (As an updated note: more than three years have passed since we read this and DD - now 9yo - still remembers much of the cork information!)

Germany

General Topics

Fiesta! Germany - Grollier
Welcome to Germany - Gareth Stevens Publishing

Literature

"Simple John" - The Lion Storyteller
The Brave Little Tailor - Vivian Sathre
The Porcelain Cat - Michael Patrick Hearn (A sorcerer's apprentice has to complete several tasks to get an ingredient - a chain story)
Bach's Big Adventure - by Sallie Kethcam

Science

Johannes Gutenberg - Fran Rees

Activities

One must listen to Bach when studying Germany. Maybe Wagner.
Good German food - brats and kraut!

United Kingdom

General Topics

Fiesta! Ireland - Grollier
Welcome to Ireland and Welcome to Scotland - Gareth Stevens Publishing
Festivals of the World: England - Gareth Stevens Publishing

Activities

Ahhh, the beauty of shortbread.
Fish and chips, preferably wrapped in newspaper

Literature

"Silly Jack", "Polly and the Frog", "The Brave Bull Calf", "The Clever Mouse", "The Clever Baker", "The Greedy Famer" - all from The Lion Storyteller
The Ghost of Greyfriar's Bobby - Ruth Brown
"Dick Wittington" - Usborne's Stories from Around the World

Galloping - Asia

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:50:00 -0500

We did several countries in Asia, spending the most time on China. Actually, our exploration of China encultured a love of that country's culture and history in Kate. Nearly four years later, she still loves to read Chinese folktales and wants to visit China someday.

So, our extra resources for Galloping Asia:

China

Festivals of the World: China - by Colin Cheong
Passport to China - by Stephen Keeler
The Great Wall of China - Leonard Everette Fisher
The Usborne Introduction to Asia IL
Usborne's Peoples of the World
Usborne Round the World Songbook

Activities

We made a Chinese New Year dragon with instructions from Enchanted Learning.
Enchanted Learning also has a nice print-out of a 16th century Chinese
Emperor as a coloring page.
We made red paper evelopes (with gifts!) as found in the Festivals of the World: China book by Cheong.
We've eaten a LOT of Chinese cooking from Cooking the Chinese Way (a GtG listed book). We highly recommend the recipe on page 48 (pork with green pepper & pineapple.)

Explorers and Biographies

The Adventures of Marco Polo- by Roger Smalley
Confucius: Golden Rule - by Russell Freedman

Literature

Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat - by Jennifer Armstrong (wonderful illustrations with a lot of detail about Chinese culture and life.)
Daisy Comes Home - by Jan Brett (Brett's books always include a puzzle. In this one, set in modern-day China, all the animals of the Chinese zodiac are hidden in the landscape, in calendar order.)
The Chinese Siamese Cat - by Amy Tan (The original Sagwa story with beautiful illustrations.)
Wishbones: A Folk Tale from China - by Barbara Ker Wilson (The Chinese version of Cinderella.)
The Emperor's Garden- by Ferida Wolff
The Willow Pattern Story- by Allan Drummond
The Boy of the Three-Year Nap - by Dianne Snyder
Everyone Knows What A Dragon Looks Like - by Jay Williams
33 Multicultural Tales to Tell- by Despain. Includes the Chinese folktales "Ah Shing Catches a Ghost" and "The Officer of Heaven."
All the Way to Lhasa: A tale from Tibet - by Barbara Helen Burger

Science

Cub To Panda - Jason Cooper
Giant Pandas- by Jenore Franzen
A snow leopard conservancy page with many images.
I found sloth bears VERY hard to research, but this, and the following, link seem to be reputable.

Korea

General Topics

Welcome to South Korea - by Karen Kwek and Johanna Masse
Fiesta! Korea- by Grolier Educational
The Usborne Introduction to Asia IL
Usborne's Peoples of the World

Activities

We made a fan for Tano Day from the Festivals of the World book.
Jin-Ju sticker paper doll from Dover.
We *attempted* to make Kkaegangjong (a sesame seed pastry) from the Festivals book, but it didn't quite work out. Still tasty, though!

Literature

Magic Spring: A Korean folktale - by Nami Rhee (A wealthy, yet greedy, neighbor takes advantage of the generosity of an older couple, but learns a lesson the hard way.)
The Firekeeper's Son - by Linda Sue Park (The story of the hilltop lights used to signal the Korean emperor that "all is well." We enjoyed this one very much.)
33 Multicultural Tales to Tell- by Despain. Includes the Korean folktale "The Mirror."

Japan

General Topics

Fiesta! Japan - Grollier
Welcome to Japan - Gareth Stevens Publishing
The Usborne Introduction to Asia IL
Usborne's Peoples of the World

Activities

We made lots of origami, including a jumping frog (a bit tough) and a whale (great for K level) from Enchanted Learning.
Fiesta! Japan has several craft activities, including a samurai newspaper hat and Shichi-Go-San paper dolls (these are origami-like and are really neat when finished.)
We played the "Cherry Blooms" song from the Usborne Round the World Songbook

Literature

The Village Tree - by Taro Yashima
The Adventures of Matamoro - retold by Ralph McCarthy (The "peach boy" story, told in rhyming couplets. A fun read aloud!)
The Moon Princess - retold by Ralph McCarthy
Yoshi's Feast - by Kimiko Kajikawa (reminiscent of "The Deer Mouse's Wisdom" from the Lion Storyteller collection.)
Grandfather Cherry-Blossom - retold by Ralph McCarthy
33 Multicultural Tales to Tell- by Despain. Includes the Japanese folktale "The Listening Cap."
The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks- by Katherine Paterson

India

General Topics

Fiesta! India - Grollier
Welcome to India - Gareth Stevens Publishing
The Usborne Introduction to Asia IL
Usborne's Peoples of the World

Activities

Dover has a set of temporary henna tatoos in beautiful floral patterns. My daughter enjoyed wearing these while we studied India. We also enjoyed "Maya," a sticker paper doll by Dover.
Paper plate peacocks from Enchanted Learning.
We made Samosas, Indian toffee (burfi).

Literature

Kipling, Kipling, Kipling - Rudyard Kipling wrote his stories to be read aloud and they are a delight to read. My daughter loved them!
"Snake Charmer" - Usborne Stories from Around the World
Seasons of Splendour - Madhur Jaffrey (folk stories of the Hindu faith).
"Little Babaji" - 20th Century Treasure of Children's Literature
Mother Theresa - by Demi
One Grain of Rice: A Mathmatical Folktale- by Demi
"The Mouse Deer's Wisdom" - The Lion Storyteller (which is even more fun if you research Mouse Deer online!)

Israel

General Topics

Festivals of the World: Israel - Grollier
Welcome to Israel - Gareth Stevens Publishing
The Usborne Introduction to Asia IL
Usborne's Peoples of the World
DK Bible Lands
Place of Worship: Jewish Synagogue

Activities

We learned and danced the "hora" from Festivals of the World: Israel.
Using a pattern from Enchanted Learning, we made a driedel and played this for days.
Baking Challah was a big hit!
Enchanted Learning has a donkey printout to color with some
general information.
We watched Fiddler On the Roof.
We explored more music from Israel by listening to the music of Itzhak Perlman's Jewish band, "The Klezmatics" - In the Fiddler's House. Great stuff!

Literature

Chicken Man - by Michele Edwards (a humorous story about life on a kibbutz)
The Spotted Pony: A Collection of Hanukkah Stories - Eric Kimmel (telling stories on the eight nights of Hannukkah is a tradition that is captured in these traditional stories.)
And Shira Imagined - Giora Carmi (A delightful tale of a young visitor to Israel who imagines "what if....")
Old Noah's Elephants - by Warren Ludwig (a family favorite of long-standing.)
Kingfisher's Jewish Stories - ed. by Adele Geras (modern stories for Hannukah)

Russia

General Topics

Festivals of the World: Russia - Grollier
Welcome to Russia - Gareth Stevens Publishing
The Usborne Introduction to Asia IL
Usborne's Peoples of the World

Activities

There are a couple of good coloring pages for St. Basil's Cathedral - see *this* and *this.*
We explored music from Russia by listening to the music of Tchaikovsky and other Russian masters. One of my favorite cd's is "Russian Spectacular."

Literature

"Baba Yaga" - Usborne's Stories from Around the World
Told in Russia - (a collection of Russian folktales)
Babushka Baba Yaga - Patricia Polacco (What happens when Baba Yaga wants to become a babushka?!)
The Enourmous Turnip - by Alexie Tolstoy; one of the chain-story forms popular in Russian folktales
The Giant Carrot - by Jan Peck (another chain story, set in America, but based upon the Russian original. Great humor here!)
Luba and the Wren - Patricia Polacco (a wonderful tale with a great moral)

Science

The Best Book of Wolves and Wild Dogs - Kingfisher Publications
Taiga - by Elizabeth Kaplan (most of Russia is covered in either taiga or tundra; we're saving tundra for our Polar Regions study.)
Siberian Tiger - by Jason Cooper

Revisiting Galloping the Globe - Introduction

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:21:00 -0500

Many (many) moons ago, I had a website. This was before blogging became the preferred method of web-self-publishing, of course. It's come as no surprise to me, having not updated that website in over two years, that old "free" website hosting sites are shutting down, mine included.

We did Galloping the Globe for Kindergarten. Kate just started 4th grade, so it's been a while. But, I did have a pretty nice list of things we did for the various countries all outlined on the old website.

So, as an effort to "rescue" this data before it disappears into cyber-nowhere, I'll have a few posts here pertaining to our "gallop." Hopefully some of this information will still be useful.

Introduction

General Activities

Maps and Mapping - by Deborah Chancellor.
In addition to reading the text, we did the
"Treasure Map" and "Compass" activities from
the back. I tried burning a hole into my map
for effect - Kate still remembers how well *that*
turned out!
DK Eyewitness: Explorers - by Rupert
Matthews
Usborne Children's Picture Atlas
We made a paper mache globe with instructions from Enchanted Learning.
We made honey buns to go along with our study of bees (suggested by reading the Magic School Bus in a Beehive book). The recipe for these can be found in the July 2005 issue of The Baking Sheet.
Butterfly waxed paper crafts from Enchanted Learning.

Explorers (we added the following texts about some of those featured in GtG):

Leif Erickson - by Dan Zadra
Ferdinand Magellen - by Claude Hurwicz
The Voyage of Columbus: In His Own Words - a pop-up by Stacie Strong
Sir Francis Drake - by Tanya Larkin
A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus - by David Adler
My Best Book of Pirates - by Barnaby Howard (a Kingfisher Book)

Literature:

And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon - by Janet Stevens (what happens in the nursery rhyme when they get lost and don't come back! Cat, Cow, and Dog use a map - drawn by Fork - to find their way around fairytale land.)
The Once Upon a Time Map Book - by B.J. Hennessey. (A fun book! Travel through six "once upon a time" places, like Oz or the top of Jack's Beanstalk, in search of treasures. For more skilled map readers or learners with lots of help.)
Madlenka - by Peter Sis (a little girl loses her tooth and travels around her block to share her good news with many ethnic neighbors.)
Mapping Penny's World - by Loreen Leedy (a child makes maps of the many places that she and her dog visit. Covers various types of map styles.)
Magic School Bus: Inside a Beehive - by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degan (One of the books from the popular series.)
Waiting for Wings - by Lois Ehlert

Science:

Butterflies and Moths (Usborne First Nature)
Creepy Crawlies (Usborne First Nature)
Insect Sticker Atlas (Usborne)
We colored and labeled several butterfly and insect printouts from Enchanted Learning covering the butterfly life cycle, the body parts of insects, and the "accurate" depiction of a Blue Morpho butterfly.

Teaching what matters

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:31:00 -0500

One of the very things that makes homeschooling attractive to many people is the ability to instill in their children their family's religious and moral views.

And yet, it seems that the next "trap" in this project is to treat our faith as though it's another school subject. In fact, in my tracking program, I have "Bible" listed, and it's the first "course" of the day.

Now, I realize that making a place in our daily/school schedule for some sort of Bible study is a positive thing. It instills good habits, it's a good way to start the school day, and with, young children, it's how any sort of regular devotions are going to get accomplished.

But, it's so easy to let it become another checkbox for the day, as opposed to a way of life that should be lived each and every minute.

This all sort of fell together for us recently, as we went through the difficult decision to leave a church we'd been with for several years.

In our area of the country, church attendance isn't ubiquitous, but it certainly is expected of folks at a certain social level. In fact, we joked that when we moved back to Indiana from Texas, the top two questions we were asked were, "Are you originally from __________?" and "What church are you attending?"

Church is a social event. It's, as Rayford Steele (for you Left Behind fans) puts it, "Where we found our doctor, our dentist, and the pediatrician." It can become a surrogate country club.

But, as we matured in our faith, it became clear that we needed more from our church. Not just for the adults, but also for our DD.

Counter-intuitively, what we were NOT looking for were more "children's programs" or a "children's church." In fact, we were hoping to find a church where we would be encouraged to worship as a family and where we would *all* be challenged to live out our faith.

I had considered that DD would miss seeing some of her friends from our old church. And I'd assured her that we would still go there, on occasion, to touch base. Plus, we'll see them anyway - it's a small community.

What I had not counted was how much our conversations about this change, which transpired over the course of about 18 months, would interest her. Or how much she would understand and consider what we were discussing.

Nor had I counted on how important it was for her to witness the importance of this decision to us. It made the whole "going to church" business real, not just something we do on Sunday. Suddenly, what went on in church meant something to her beyond being part of our weekend ritual.

And, unsurprisingly, it also seems to have caused her to take our daily devotionals more personally. Suddenly, this, too, wasn't just something to study, but something that adults discussed, questioned, prayed about, and took into consideration in their daily lives. There's a new focus in her study, new questions that she has, and a new awareness of the importance of faith in our daily lives.

We won't be giving up our morning devotionals or our Kay Arthur studies. But, it is gratifying to know that, through God's grace, we've managed to disciple our daughter by living out our convictions.

What an awesome gift to all of us.

Re-entry Blues

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:50:00 -0500

Too bad I'm not into customizing my blog with music. I'd find something really bluesy to go with this post because, like all good blues tunes, we saw it comin' and we couldn't stop the train wreck.

We survived a week of DD attending summer day camp. Sigh.

Without a doubt it was a great experience for her. It was a drama camp, held daily for one week, from 9am to 5pm. Monday morning they auditioned parts and Friday evening they put on the performance. It was intense, but the participants - all 45 of them - did an amazing job!

However, and it's probably just me, but I don't quite see how families survive this, especially if one extrapolates it from one week to nine MONTHS of the year.

And, in fact, I'm quite sure it was *much* better than a typical school year. Except for the exhaustion (more on that later), DD was quite happy to get up and go again the next morning. It was all fun and she was enjoying it with two friends while she was there. I didn't have to beg her to get up at least.

But, oy vey! The evenings were terrible!

I finally figured out that we were all suffering from "re-entry" issues. At first, I only applied my thinking to DD, but later I realized it was all of us.

Of course, on a daily basis, DH has to adjust from being at work, where he's the "boss" and pretty much able to control all the details and issues, to being at home, where *I* have been the "boss" for the majority of the day. Handing over control to him, yet retaining some consistency, has always been a bit of a challenge for all three of us. However, it comes down to having DH come home to DD and myself. So, it's one person re-entering the family unit.

However, for this week, we had DD off doing her thing as well. And for the day, she was, essentially, one of "many." Yes, she was assigned specific tasks, a group to work with, etc. But, for the most part, she was autonomous and one of a group. Even the ride home, with two friends and another parent, she was still in a different, though transitional, dynamic.

But, then, as soon as she hits the door, she's our daughter, with all the usual, normal, routine expectations. And, being an only child, the focus of many questions, hugs, and general, pointed, interest. As she later pointed out, "It's a shock to the system."

And, let's not forget. For the week, she was keeping the hours of a full-time job - 9-5. While I tried to get her into bed early enough, there was the conflict with finding time to do things with us in the few hours we had. Many of our usual family bonding activites, like a trip to the pool, were out. There simply wasn't time and, as the week wore on, DD was simply too tired to add that extra exercise into the day.

And, there's Mom. Here I am, suddenly, with time. Time that DH insists that I view as, predominantly, "free time." And, I tried. I really did. I read books - in the daylight, with no booklight! I watched two (2) movies. I caught up on some paperwork, did some research on various household matters, and held conversations with myself, and God - without interruption. I drank a whole Starbucks Mocha without having to share.

It was an eerie preview of the "empty nest" as well as a welcome break from the routine. I commented to DH later that it was a bit scary how easy it was to get used to having DD gone for the entire day. <shudder>

However, the circumstances also created for me a time of transition as well. I found that having my "peace and quiet" suddenly shattered by folks coming home, bringing mail to deal with, questions to answer, and with demands to fulfill, was jarring. It's not that I didn't welcome my family home; I just needed time to adjust to their presences after nine hours of being alone. I never quite figured out how to make that adjustment easily.

So, it was rough. We squabbled a bit, I'm sorry to say. DD was *extremely* defensive about anything that suggested she wasn't "autonomous" and able to do things for herself. Surprise. She'd spent all day "doing for herself" and suddenly it seemed she was no longer capable. DH expected "normal" and got anything but, which is always upsetting. And I seemed unable to shift gears, finding the continual distractions and disruptions of my lines of thought just so "rude." :)

However, it's over. [Insert happy dance here.]

The performance was wonderful. DD had a great time and learned quite a lot. Hopefully, her parents did, too.

And, if time helps us to forget some things (though I distinctly remember loads of details regarding labor and giving birth to DD, so I'm dubious), perhaps we'll let DD do another week-long camp next year.

Perhaps....

When Science meets Dinner

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:03:00 -0600

Before anyone runs screaming from the room, do realize that cooking is a form of chemistry.

Not too long ago, we made chocolate from roasted cacao beans and we've "done" the yeast-makes-carbon dioxide experiments (making rolls) - so this isn't really new.

But, it is going to be a first when the idea for the food item came AFTER the science experiment!

It started when we needed red-cabbage juice to use as an indicator for our acid/base chemistry experiments.

Easy enough. Buy a red cabbage (easily available during Thanksgiving season), chop it fairly fine, boil it in water, strain.

The only difference is that you must boil it in distilled water, to ensure the indicator is pure and not tainted with minerals or acids from tap water.

After straining the cabbage from the water, I had this lovely pile of not-so-red cabbage that was cooked. Now what?

We don't particularly care for boiled cabbage. But, I hated to see it go to waste, so I bagged it and froze it thinking it might see a stir-fry some day, when the pantry was low.

However, it's appearing tonight, in Brunswick Stew - a crock-pot meal that can be a great way to use up leftovers.

My only surprise? The cabbage is now PURPLE! Yes, this shade of purple.

I wonder what my husband is going to say....